News chief told court 'absurd' stories: lawyer

Selma Milovanovic

NEWS Ltd boss John Hartigan allegedly ''had no idea what his job was'' in the year before he sacked Herald Sun editor-in-chief Bruce Guthrie and later told a court ''beat-ups'' and ''absurd'' stories about Mr Guthrie's failings.

Norman O'Bryan, SC, for Mr Guthrie, told the Supreme Court that Mr Hartigan wrongly believed he should not intervene in the long-running clash between Mr Guthrie and Herald and Weekly Times managing director Peter Blunden because both were ''A-league players''.

''[It] demonstrates he has no idea what his job is in this company,'' Mr O'Bryan said. ''It is his job to deal with the situation. What he did in this case demonstrates a complete dereliction of his duty.''

Mr Hartigan's evidence was mostly either a beat-up or an exaggeration, some of it ''almost amusing in its absurdity'', and Mr Blunden ''told a number of lies on his oath''.

''You will reach a conclusion that the most credible witness by a mile was Guthrie,'' Mr O'Bryan told Justice Stephen Kaye. ''He was also the most honest witness. There is nothing in his evidence that objectively can be contradicted. He accepted there had been criticism made, there had been unhappiness … unlike Hartigan and Blunden he never went behind anyone's back.''

Mr O'Bryan said it was clear that during his evidence, Mr Hartigan sometimes tried to stick to a ''story'' he had recently learnt.

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Mr Hartigan, who in court described himself as a journalist, never asked Mr Guthrie to respond to Mr Blunden's complaints.

''Any working journalist worth their salt always gets both sides of the story,'' Mr O'Bryan said. ''Mr Hartigan never did that with Mr Guthrie.''

The failure by News Ltd to question Mr Guthrie on matters put to their own witnesses raised ''real doubts'' whether certain events happened or had been accurately recalled, Mr O'Bryan said.

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Mr Hartigan and Mr Blunden had argued that one of Mr Guthrie's failings was inadequate front page coverage of the 2008 AFL finals. Both men had testified that putting Collingwood on the front page would lift sales by 30,000 copies, which Mr O'Bryan said in fact made not a ''jot of difference''.

Mr O'Bryan said he could almost hear Mr Blunden's outrage at Monday's Herald Sun, which gave more prominence to a rumour that ''almost deceased famous swimmer'' Ian Thorpe was returning to the sport than to Collingwood's win over Carlton.

Will Houghton, QC, for News Ltd, earlier said it would have been inappropriate for Mr Blunden to have told Mr Guthrie that he had repeatedly urged Mr Hartigan to sack him.

Mr Guthrie is suing News Ltd for $2.7 million for unfairly dismissing him.

News Ltd claims Mr Guthrie was paid what he was owed and his claim for future losses was futile as the chance of renewing his three-year contract was zero, while a payment for expectation of loss was not one required by law.

If his lost-opportunity claim fails, Mr Guthrie has claimed there is an implied term of trust and confidence in Australian contract law, which News Ltd breached by never letting him address the circumstances surrounding his sacking because it kept him in the dark.

But Mr Houghton has told the court the ''rather nebulous implied term'' had no operation with respect to the way in which someone was sacked.

News Ltd has argued that Mr Guthrie - whom News Ltd paid $933,998 before tax - was not entitled to a ''reasonable notice'' payment under his fixed-term contract.

Adjourning his decision, Justice Kaye for the second time in four days urged the parties to settle the case.